Julia and I are going to Indiana this weekend. We start tomorrow night and will drive to my niece and nephew's house to spend the night and a few morning hours with little Noah. Then, we go down to Indy and have lunch with Marcia, and finally, we'll make it down to Abe Martin Lodge for our China reunion weekend. I had to call and check that I had made reservations. I could not for the life of me remember calling them! But, I had.
How much of the last few months have I forgotten? I am sure I've missed a few things. I am writing most things, moving to writing everything down. The mush of my brain makes menopause look easy.
I also have been double booking things this week -- 3 times! And my PTO work is slipping. Oh, I have to find my new normal so that I can get to it. I hope that once school starts, I will be able to organize a bit better.
I puttered around the house -- kitchen, laundry, a bit of clean up upstairs -- while Julia had therapy today. I got rid of a few coats in anticipation of putting up a new coat rack in the cellar after I get rid of the rack that collapsed. I weeded out a few of David's coats and jackets, keeping two that someone might want to wear. When Julia starts school, I am going to have to get to cleaning the cellar in earnest. It was to be our summer task, when it was still we. We were going to lighten our load. I have stuff -- 2 microwaves, an old but working lawnmower, some furniture -- that I am going to sell or give away. There are those boxes of David's manuscripts but for now I will just make sure they are all in one place. I need to wait a year or so for that task. Gosh, I have an electric keyboard that I bought for David, and I know I will find more stuff that just needs to be gotten rid of. Somebody should be using it all!
And then there is David's desk upstairs, clothes (although Cheshire did a first round of this weeks ago), and at some point, computer files. Right now, I am still doing estate work now and then. I did figure out (after a phone call and a bunch of stupid questions) one of the pension plans. Two more to go.
Julia was pretty incredible today. Things are changing for her -- more awareness, more interesting questions. I can't quite quantify it, but it is as if she is waking up, coming of age. Both of her therapists worked on reading with her, and Julia knows more than she wants to admit to. Interesting. She can look at words and make an attempt to pronounce them. She is not that crazy about doing it, but especially when she is interested, the reading is coming along. Writing is the same way, but she is still not inspired to write. And this child has so many stories.
I moved her up to 15 mg of Adderall a day after our last doc visit. Today was the first pill change.
She is also desperate for attention. Mary came over this afternoon and the three of us went for a walk at our little zoo. Julia insisted on having Mary's attention -- at times, rather rudely. And we will curb the rudeness but how wonderful is that?
If we (me, teachers, therapists) can only steer this changeling of a child.
After Mary left us, around dinner time, I went in the house to do something about food, and Julia asked to stay outside to catch bees. Her usual bug catching routine is directed towards ants or rolly-pollies. I told her that bees were hard to catch and that she should be very careful not to get stung. She told me not to worry, she would use leaves. I didn't think much about it. I mean, who catches bees?
I went looking for her a few minutes later and she was in front of our next door neighbor's house, under the pear tree, putting the bees that were eating the fallen pears into her bug box. I thought she was working on getting her first bee in, but she had captured three already. We put some fruit into the box and the bees are outside on our patio table.
When she came in, she wanted to learn more about bees, and we looked them up on the computer. This is what this child's education should be like.
Later, when we were getting ready to go upstairs and go to bed -- and it was late because I was talking on the phone too long -- I told Julia to put away her whicky sticks while I closed windows and turned out lights. I went through my tasks and came back to the living room to find the whicky sticks still on the floor. I picked them up quickly, thinking that Julia went upstairs to the bathroom and if she did, I didn't want her coming down again. I turned off living room lights and went upstairs but Julia was not there. I checked the upstairs rooms, then went to the first floor and basement, calling Julia all the time and wondering where she went to. She might not answer me if she was too involved in something but she would never stand for being left in the dark.
Julia was not in the house.
My heart started racing. I went to the front door that I knew was locked and it was open. I stepped out and Julia was on our deck checking the bees. "I got some mosquito bites but I needed to see my bees," she said by way of explanation. Well, I never told her not to do that, and she was perfectly safe. I just wish she had told me before she went out.
1 comment:
"When she came in, she wanted to learn more about bees, and we looked them up on the computer. This is what this child's education should be like. "
My heart twisted when I read this. This is what EVERY child's education should be like.
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